Atlanta’s moderate coalition tied race-relations progress to economic growth.

Evidence

When Hunter asked Hughes Spalding to name some of the “major issues before the Atlanta community,” the attorney answered, “I will give you one—segregation. You can slice that one in two and have two [issues] if you want to, or if you want four, cut it four ways.” Segregation overshadowed everything, he suggested. And yet, even if the blacks and whites of Atlanta found themselves focused on the racial lines between them, they managed to work across those lines, not simply for their own self-interest but for the common good of the city as well. Ultimately, the story of Atlanta’s moderate coalition signaled a departure from a traditional southern politics dominated by white supremacy and rural interests. It represented, instead, a bold model that held that progress in race relations would create progress in economic growth, too. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 53

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illustrates how segregation dominated every Atlanta issue and defines the moderate coalition model against rural white-supremacist politics.
• XREF: connects to: Postwar Atlanta’s desegregation was driven by a white-black moderate coalition, not activists or reactionaries — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 50; Atlanta postwar politics fused racial progressivism with economic growth. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 52; Atlanta’s moderate coalition allied blacks with affluent whites against white workers — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 100

Broader Connections

• Atlanta’s moderate coalition allied blacks with affluent whites against white workers #expands (0.78) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 100